I got to check this out during the members preview on Thursday. It was amazing. I think my life might suck less if I had Quincy’s couch.
This weekend, as part of (what else?) the mega mid-century SoCal art survey Pacific Standard Time, LACMA will open California Design, 1930-1965: “Living in a Modern Way.” It’s the first major exhibition of California mid-century modern design …
Cell phone photos from a few hours ago. There were cops and cones at every street and alley for three blocks surrounding the Santa Monica Synagogue at 1448 18th Street in Santa Monica.
I knew it was bad when I saw even the Park Rangers were there helping. I guess they ran out of parking peeps.
Santa Monica is under attack — by cranes!
Santa Monica has big plans for a facelift before the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, but the city’s businesses, residents, and visitors will have to endure an even bigger headache over the next five years as such projects break ground and reach fruition.
via smmirror.com | Santa Monica Considers the Impacts of Downtown Construction.
Crazy stuff. Can’t believe some of it.
The City of Santa Monica is celebrating the reopening of the Charnock water wells and the reconstruction of the state-of-the-art Santa Monica Water Treatment Plant and after a long battle to clean-up the MTBE pollution, hold the oil companies responsible, and secure a sustainable supply of locally produced water.
The Chiat/Day relationship with Steve Jobs and Apple is nothing short of legendary. That legend goes something like this:
Chiat was hired by Apple to create the (also legendary) Ridley Scott-directed, $1 million, only-aired-once-cause-it’s-so-goddamn-special 1984 commercial that introduced the Macintosh line of computers during the Super Bowl.
Big Brother on the telescreen in the Apple 1984 commercial
When Jobs was forced out of left Apple, he used some of his newfound wealth to put Chiat/Day on retainer as his personal ad agency; basically, he took them with him when he left the company.
Artist's rendering of Jobs departure
The Building
The ad agency used some of that money to build a new office building.
LOL Binoculars
Completed in 1991, Chiat’s Gehry-designed building on Main Street in Venice is a globally-recognizable structure that boasts office space of 71,935 square feet teamed with the iconic presence of Claes Oldenberg‘s enormous binocular edifice arching over the original parking entrance. The building is within sight of the original design space of Charles and Ray Eames, a stone’s throw from one of our favorite Austrian’s old hangout spots (e.g. Gold’s Gym), and across the street from the original Venice Short Line Ocean Park Yard trolley station (it’s now an MTA bus depot and you can still see some original rail tracks from before the buses took over).
In 1996, the ad agency left that building and moved to Playa del Rey. Jobs was running NeXT computer when that company was bought by Apple. TBWA/Chiat-Day created a self-contained subsidiary called Media Arts Lab. This new organization would be dedicated to a single client, Steve Jobs.
Apple’s New Rivalry
“Make no mistake: Google wants to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.” – Steve Jobs addressing Apple employees in early 2010
Apple (Jobs) seems to thrive on competition. See Microsoft (Bill Gates) for more info. Jobs has always had a reputation for being the “cool kid” amongst the tech giants. Your cute lab partner in chemistry class? Steve’s ex-girlfriend. And like any good Alpha geek, he’s got a chip on his shoulder. Just let him think he’s in charge and everything will be cool.
Steve Jobs (Noah Wiley) confronting Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) about Windows in The Pirates of Silicon Valley
I’m still researching the origins of their personal relationship, but they’ve been neighbors for years. Schmidt was a big deal at Sun when they developed Java and then went to run Novell before leaving to head Google. He’s taught at Stanford. It seems like the guy has been in the Valley since grad school.
Fast-forward to 2010. Rumours develop of a rift between Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs.
It’s like watching Lex Luthor fight Dr. Viktor von Doom: baaaaaad aaaass (I leave it up to you to figure out who’s who in that simile)
So, this post will never be done. I have to publish it now or I will never stop working on it.
But the saga continues…
Further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html
UPDATE: An anonymous source at Google confirmed that this theory is not unlikely. Internally, Googlers are a little jealous of the unstoppable climb in Apple’s share price. Coupled with the its fanaticism, the reality distortion field (RFD) at Apple breeds contempt amongst the faithful toward any perceived non-believers.
Demand Media, an internet how-to and general information provider with headquarters in Santa Monica, went public Wednesday to the tune of some $1.5 billion.
The more time goes by, the more companies I was salivating over working at last year turn out to look pretty crummy. In 2010 they invited me to interview for the position of SEO Technical Manager at the eHow.com property.
The office was all a-buzz because they’d just made their SEC filings for the IPO in the previous week. Everyone I met with was quite nice. The managers were all intelligent, competent, and polite.
With one exception.
The gent who’d been hired to fill the position was working as a contractor: no stock for him. This “Senior Technical Recruiter” was warm and engaging and demonstrated great personnel skills during my three interviews.
It became quickly apparent, however, when the management decided to pass on me. The “Senior Technical Recruiter” – let’s call him RT – dropped the conversation like a hot potato. No responses to phone calls or e-mail.
That is, until, a few weeks later when a close colleague mentioned he’d be heading over there for an interview. I fired up Thunderbird and sent RT another e-mail, mentioning that I’d heard from my friend that he was interviewing over there.
And I got a response! Imagine that!
Anyway, this article is pretty anti-DemandMedia. It says that it’s not such a great company from the perspective of the freelance writers that make $5 per article.
Kyle Hayes
My friend Kyle has a blog. Kyle is The Master.
10
